“Olympia? Why would anyone want to live in Olympia?” That was the response from a Seattle musician I was gigging with years ago when I told him where I lived (2000 – 2006). I discovered that is the prevailing Seattle view of Olympia, or anywhere else in Washington for that matter. The typical Olympia reaction is to let Seattle residents go ahead and think it’s provincial so they won’t move there and make it as crowded and expensive as Seattle is.

I think the state’s capital is a treasure—beautiful, less crowded, economically accessible, friendly, it had great schools for my kids, and it was a convenient commute to my day gig as Director of Jazz at Pacific Lutheran University in south Tacoma. To my delight, I also discovered a vibrant community of musicians in Olympia, some of international repute and stature.  Unfettered by the lack of local gigs, these wonderful artists’ activities have flourished, and they welcomed me into the fold with the same small-town warmth possessed by the city in general.

As a former Olympia citizen and artist (I now live in Sumner, Washington), I feel enough ownership of and affection for the local scene to research its history and artists. A great beginning point was Paul de Barros’s groundbreaking Seattle jazz history Jackson Street After Hours, which has portions devoted to Olympia and its jazz artists.  Local saxophonist, the late Bert Wilson, kindly loaned me his collection of articles from The Olympian, Earshot, and other publications written in the 1980s and 1990s.

While the people and events chronicled here may be old news to some readers, to younger readers and newer arrivals, the story is an inspirational eye opener.

Olympia Jazz Roots

Duke Ellington’s orchestra played at the Olympia Armory in the early 1940s and came back through for a Northwest tour in 1952, captured on a Folkways album, First Annual Tour of the Pacific Northwest, Spring 1952 (Folkways 02968, 1983). Olympia was an occasional stop for traveling name acts during and after World War II, many working The Evergreen Ballroom.  The Evergreen Ballroom was one of the most prestigious venues in Southwest Washington, seeing the likes of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton. In the 1960s, it became more of a “chittlin’ circuit” roadhouse.  On Sunday nights, it presented acts such as Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Etta James to a consistently packed house. But the real history of the Olympia scene as we know it today began in 1971 with the founding of The Evergreen State College and the establishment of Red Kelly’s Tumwater Conservatory jazz club shortly thereafter.

Evergreen (the college, not the ballroom) had a few events and features that clearly tie it to the Olympia jazz scene. A fine trumpeter and music educator, Dave McCreary started a big band there. KAOS FM, Evergreen’s radio station, began programming alternative radio. KAOS and now-legendary local music rags and labels such as Sub Pop have become important components in the history of what the world has come to know as grunge music of the 1990s, but local musicians see a broader influence that helped to define and support Olympia jazz. The pervasive spirit of Olympia music is decidedly noncommercial and explorative, a tolerant, cloistered, and self-supporting fraternity of artists far from the commercial pressures and scrutiny of larger urban areas. It is doubtful that there was a tremendous amount of mutual admiration and understanding between the jazzers and alternative rock proponents, but they did share the ideal of pushing their respective musics out of the box, hence the free jazz characterization often put upon Olympia jazz by outside observers and personified in local legend Bert Wilson. We’ll get back to this side of the story in a minute.

The other center of the Olympia jazz scene was the Tumwater Conservatory. This establishment (1974 – 1978), which later became the South Pacific Chinese restaurant on the corner of Custer Way and Capitol overlooking the Miller brewery, became the temporary resting place for veteran jazz bassist and long-time road rat Red Kelly (1927 – 2004). Red was a prankster of legendary proportions; he is probably represented in a disproportionate share of the outlandish musician road stories that exist. His most distinguished act of local irreverence was his satirical run for political office as head of the OWL party (“Out With Logic”). Part farce and part scathing commentary on politics-as-usual, Kelly actually won a significant minority vote. His caustic relationship with politicians may have eventually cost him his club. As the story goes, Red managed to insult the mayor of Tumwater, who promptly initiated a lengthy street maintenance project in front of Kelly’s establishment, effectively forcing him out of business. (In truth, the roadwork was probably going to be done anyway, but the mayor probably savored the coincidental inconvenience to Red.) Red thereafter opened his club in downtown Tacoma in 1986.

Tumwater Conservatory became a focal point for the more straight-ahead jazz dignitaries of Kelly’s musical circle. Among these is pianist Jack Perciful, Kelly’s long-time associate during their Las Vegas years with Harry James, Corky Corcoran, and Buddy Rich, from about 1956 until the early 1970s. Another fine veteran of the Conservatory was saxophonist Chuck Stentz (1926 – 2018), who attended the New England Conservatory of Music and studied with pianist/arranger Nat Pierce and West Coast altoist Charlie Mariano. In the 1950s he bought Yenny’s Music Company in Olympia, availing the store as a musician hangout prior to the establishment of Kelly’s place in Tumwater. Chuck had a luscious, Lester Young-type sound and the most swinging eighth-note lines imaginable. He was inducted into the Seattle Earshot Jazz Hall of Fame in 2000.

Tumwater Conservatory also revived the careers of two marvelous vocalists. Chuck Stentz’s wife, Jan, responded to Red Kelly’s bidding and jump-started her singing after time off to raise kids. Accompanied by Jack Perciful or Barney McClure, she astounded musicians and audiences alike. She succumbed to cancer in 1998, but her impact and influence is still felt on popular local singers such as Greta Matassa, who lived in Olympia early in her jazz career. The other vocalist to make a comeback at Tumwater Conservatory was Ernestine Anderson (1928 – 2016). After a decline in her career, she moved to England in 1965 and practically disappeared from the American view. Once again, with Red Kelly’s encouragement, she began singing again in Tumwater around 1975 and was soon heard by bassist Ray Brown at a music festival in Canada. Brown took on the management of her career, signing her with Concord Records.

Red pulled up stakes and moved to Tacoma, but there were other Olympia jazz pursuits, now steering the music from the mainstream to the more eclectic. Evergreen State College and KAOS have already been given honorable mention in this regard but, as I see it, much of the credit goes to the tireless work of Olympia pianist Michael Moore. Moore conceived the idea of his Latin jazz band (for lack of a better designation) Obrador at Berkeley, bringing it into being in Olympia in 1976. With the help of Joe Murphy and Kim McCartney of Eclipse Productions, Obrador performed with Charles Mingus at the now defunct Tyee Motor Hotel in Olympia on April 3, 1977. The seven-piece band was together for over 25 years, with many of the charter members still intact, including guitarist Paul Hjelm, reedman Tom Russell, bassist Steve Luceno, and percussionist Mike Olson. These individuals are still part of the Olympia jazz elite. 

Obrador’s music was eclectic, original, uplifting, and entertaining, but Moore and the band’s efforts to bolster artistic appreciation, freedom, exploration, synthesis, and tolerance, and its incalculable support of music and music education with their modest means has had an equal impact on the artistic community at large.  

In June 1998, Obrador spent an afternoon at the Escuela de Musica del Municipo de Guanabacoa, a music academy in Cuba.  After witnessing the wonderful music made by the children in the squalid conditions of the school, the band initiated The Guanabacoa Project to raise money for the school and to send it musical instruments.  Obrador has been equally generous at home.  

For all their longevity, Obrador got few gigs, mostly on the festival and college circuits. Like many eclectic artists, the group members were always on the lookout for a venue to play in as well as to encourage performance and experimentation in all the arts, and a place for education and nurturing in the arts. Michael Moore and photographer Carl Cook discovered a vacant downtown office building at 321 Jefferson Street near Perciful Landing on the Budd Inlet of Puget Sound. Envisioning a communal performing space along with office space for artists of different disciplines, the property was leased and remodeled with volunteer labor, donated materials, and several fund-raising performances. Among the many events held at Studio 321, as it was dubbed, was a community high school big band, under the auspices of a jazz component of the Capital Area Youth Symphony Association, later autonomously established as J.A.S.S. (Jazz Alliance of the South Sound). It was a jazz tutoring program spearheaded by local musicians Syd Potter, Richard Lopez, and others. On the now somber date of September 11, 2002, guitarist John Stowell appeared at Studio 321 with Scenes, his group comprised of bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop. The guest artist with the group was saxophonist Bert Wilson, another contribution to the Olympia jazz scene by Michael Moore.

BWU (Bert Wilson University)

Artistically and physically, Bert Wilson (1939-2013) literally played for his life.  Born in Evansville, Indiana, he contracted polio at the age of five.  Doctors never expected him to survive to adulthood.  With lung problems as much a chronic symptom of polio as the crippling effects that have confined Bert to a wheelchair, he took up clarinet and saxophone as therapy. Early on, he was influenced by Charlie Parker and long-time Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard.  In the 1960s, he fell deeply under the spell of John Coltrane, particularly the free music of his latter years. Bert and Olympia trumpeter Barbara Donald had an opportunity to play with the tenor master at a club in Los Angeles. Bouncing from coast to coast, Bert played with the likes of Fred Hersch and Jack DeJohnette and formed a lasting musical relationship with drummers James Zitro and Bob Meyer.  

By 1979, he was stuck in Woodstock, New York eking out an existence. Michael Moore, who had met Bert at Berkeley, again led a fund-raising effort to get him a plane ticket and bring him to Olympia, where he remained. 

Bert was a disciplined reedman, composer, and theorist.  Through unique fingering systems he developed, Wilson extended the range of the saxophone to encompass six octaves, techniques he passed on to the likes of Benny Golson and Saturday Night Live’s Lenny Pickett. His compositions, kin to those of Ornette Coleman or the “Giant Steps” variety of John Coltrane, are well-crafted and challenging works for all who attempt to play them. He was Olympia’s most celebrated national underground legend. With his uncompromising modern jazz style and sound, he rarely made formal public performances, but was known by musicians around the world, albeit those dwelling in jazz’s most inner circles. In that sense, Bert Wilson is reminiscent of Lennie Tristano, another jazz maverick and somewhat of a musical mystic in his day. (By the way, did you know that Tristano’s widow, Judy, lived in Hoquiam and had visited Bert at his home?)

However, Bert Wilson was far from a musical recluse. When he made a public performance, it was often in the company of jazz royalty.  He shared the stage with jazz notables such as Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Joe Lovano. But most often, Bert held court at home. There was no more solidifying musical institution in Olympia than the regular jam sessions at Bert’s house in west Olympia. They went on almost every night since his arrival in Olympia in the late 1970s. Known alternately as BWU (Bert Wilson University), as dubbed by pianist Joe Baque, and The Perciful Street House of Jazz, Bert’s home was a scene as truly romantic as Minton’s Playhouse in 1940s Harlem or Gil Evans’s legendary basement apartment hangout in New York during the same era. At Bert’s, the mainstream old guard commiserates with the avant-gardists and young jazz students and budding professionals who have driven all the way down from Seattle to try their wings. Bert’s two groups, Bebop Revisited (with Chuck Stentz) and Rebirth (his ultra-modern jazz group going back to his East Coast days), reflected his ecumenical place as the axis of all of Olympia’s jazz styles.

When you stepped through Bert’s front door into the living room, you found yourself surrounded by a floor full of instruments and jazz recordings shelved from floor to ceiling. Bert had a mini disc recorder and preserved every session, no matter how impromptu, intimate, or casual. He had literally hundreds of hours of performances, which he aspired to compile, edit, and release someday. He, in fact, formally released CDs on his own FMO label, some made in his home, such as his startling duo album, Magnetic Fields (FMO 20), with a mysterious free jazz pianist whom Bert identifies as “Art Tantrum.”

To witness Bert play was a challenge and an inspiration. His music is a challenge because it compels you to understand and appreciate what lies outside the conventions of music tonality and saxophone technique, though the “outness” is firmly grounded in Bert’s knowledge and mastery of those conventions. Witnessing Bert was an inspiration because, in him, you see the embodiment of music as a life-giving act. As Bert finished every torrential solo, he slowly pulled the mouthpiece away from his mouth, like the shuttle undocking from the space station, his eyes closed as if finishing a fervent prayer. When Bert played, he was literally cheating not only death itself, but the daily misery of his own infirmities, lifting himself to a place of transcendence and cordially inviting everyone around him along for the ride.

Elsewhere . . .

Another regular and intimate musical gathering I discovered in Olympia was the regular two-piano sessions with centenarian Joe Baque (1922 – 2022) and Jack Perciful (1925 – 2008). Joe was an old New Yorker who hung out on 52^nd Street in its bebop glory years and played on a ton of recording sessions and television shows in the 1950s and ’60s. He recorded an album with Greta Matassa, If the Moon Turns Green, in 1994. He was a vibes player as well, and was in line to succeed Margie Hyams as pianist George Shearing’s vibist, but opted for the more lucrative studio work as a pianist. He was a walking Library of Congress, seemingly knowing every song ever written, which he could then play in any key.  This includes folk and wedding songs from every imaginable ethnic group whom he played for in his career. Jack played with the Harry James Orchestra from 1957 – 1974, along with bassist Red Kelly, saxophonist Corky Corcoran, and the legendary drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich.

When I first heard that these two masters regularly jammed at Joe’s house, I called Jack and begged to come witness. The two granted me admission. Their collective sound was a bouquet of elegant pianistics, deeply imbued with the combined wisdom and musical discernment that comes from decades of playing with other legends such as Lena Horne, Harry James, even Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. I felt truly humbled in their presence and was deeply flattered when, on the one other occasion at Joe’s, I was asked to join in the musical fray.

Olympia Jazz Venues

Olympia has comparatively few venues for jazz.  For that matter, Olympia is less affluent and more provincial than a Seattle or Portland. When I lived in Olympia, most of us drove up north for our gigs, while the Olympia jazz scene thrived mostly behind closed doors.  

Historically, the next bright spot after the demise of the Tumwater Conservatory was the Gnu Deli, which peaked around 1979 – 1980. Owned by Mike Hall, the booking was done by musicians John Alkins and Jerry Michelson. The Gnu Deli promoted modern jazz and hosted notable artists of that genre such as Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Woody Shaw, Mal Waldron, and Leroy Jenkins.

The Rainbow Restaurant on Fourth Avenue was a jazz stronghold owned by Andrew and Laura May Abraham, themselves musicians. Local musicians such as Bert Wilson, Michael Moore, Steve Luceno, and Steve Bentley played there regularly on Wednesday nights and, between about 1975 and 1983, the venue hosted nationally known jazz artists such as Joanne Brackeen, Ralph Towner, and, as mentioned earlier, Don Cherry.

One of the most cherished jazz venues in the memories of the local musicians was Barb’s Soul Cuisine, owned by Barb O’Neill, who worked for the state Employment Security Department. Barb’s Soul Cuisine was a tiny place across the street from the Rainbow Restaurant. Running on a shoestring budget, Barb had music most every night in the 1980s, often paying the performers out of her own pocket.

The most stable jazz venue in Olympia was the Spar, a venerable downtown diner and tobacconist on Fourth Avenue dating back to the 1930s. Owned and operated by Alan McWain, there was jazz in the bar every Saturday night. While it has got to be the smokiest place I have ever played, there was no crowd in any city of any size more appreciative and hip than the audience at the Spar. Jazz artists visiting from Seattle often noted how responsive the people were compared to the rather spoiled and jaded jazz audience of the larger towns. I know that many of my mountaintop experiences have been performing there. Alan was also a tobacconist (hence all the smoke in his establishment) and, when the state and the nation passed laws prohibiting indoor smoking in public places, he sold the Spar to the restaurant and microbrewery chain McMenamin’s. The Spar was remodeled and live music was dropped.

Other contemporary Olympia venues that showcased jazz occasionally are the Limelight (formerly Thekla) at Fith and Franklin, Ben Moore’s Restaurant on Fourth Ave. just west of the Spar, and Traditions, where Bert Wilson, Steve Luceno, Steve Bentley, and I played a John Coltrane birthday celebration concert to a packed house, including the entire A Love Supreme suite and other Coltrane compositions. Guest artists for the evening were Tom Russell and Nancy Curtis on flutes, Dan Blunck on tenor sax, and Syd Potter on trumpet.

In more recent years, jazz in Olympia owes its life primarily to the nonprofit Olympia Jazz Central, fearlessly led by several remarkable women, including Nancy Curtis (wife of Bert Wilson), vocalist Susan Tuzzolino, bassist Lorree Gardener, and bell choir director Leah Wilson. For several years, OJC sponsored jazz on Monday nights at Rhythm & Rye on Capitol. They were glorious affairs featuring local as well as regional musicians. It became a victim of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and closed its doors. At this writing, OJC is looking for a new venue to revive the magic of the Spar and Rhythm & Rye days. In the meantime, jazz can be heard on occasion at First Christian Church on Franklin Street for their Fridays and the First noon concert series, sponsored by Leah Wilson, and at the nationally-recognized Olympia Farmers Market stage at Percival Landing. 

Bands and Artists

There were many notable bands and artists in Olympia, some established ones I’ve already mentioned. There was Obrador and the members therein. Of those members, I want to make special note of Steve Luceno. Steve is a marvelous bassist, a New York native who studied with Portland musicians guitarist John Stowell and bassist Dave Friesen. Steve can be found playing with everyone in the region, including guitarist Frank Seeberger, pianist Ryan Burns, or saxophonist Saul Cline, to name but a few. He recently released a CD of his own compositions, Get Up Blues, which enjoyed airplay on KPLU-FM (now KNKX). It features trumpeter Tony Grasso, saxophonist Brian Kent, and pianist Ryan Burns. Other Obrador members doing their own thing are drummer Steve Bentley and saxophonist Dan Blunck. Dan, a native of McMinnville, Oregon, was a pupil of Bert Wilson and equally at home with R&B, straight ahead, and free jazz. He released recordings of his own material with such notables as bassist Mike Bisio. 

Mention should also be made of trumpeter Barbara Donald. Cited by Scott Yanow of the All Music Guide to Jazz (www.allmusic.com) as “one of the top female trumpet players of all time,” Donald was prominent in the 1960s and early 1970s. At the time, she was married to saxophonist Sonny Simmons and recorded with him and others on the Cadence and Contemporary labels. To listen to albums such as Burning Spirits is to hear trumpet of speed and power of sound as to rival any of Donald’s male contemporaries of the time. The album Olympia Live (Cadence CJR 1011) is the All Music Guide top pick for her recorded oeuvre.  

Jazz trombonist Richard Lopez helped form a local professional big band, the Olympia Jazz Initiative. While the band pulled a few ringers in from Tacoma such as Bill Ramsey, Cliff Colon, or Kareem Kandi, most of its members lived in Olympia. The band has featured former Stan Kenton trumpeter Frank Minear, saxophonists Chuck Stentz, Dan Blunck, and Steve Munger, and legendary Olympia bebop pianist Bob Nixon. In later years, the band was renamed the Jazz Senators, was for a time directed by former Frank Sinatra saxophonist Gary Scott, and is now led by Olympia trumpeter Ben McDonald.

The Thurston County Rotary club chapters have sponsored an annual jazz festival as a fund-raising event for different causes for 20 years. It is a showcase of high school jazz bands and professional talent in the area.  Evergreen State College has shown few signs of jazz life. South Puget Sound Community College has offered jazz combo classes, and Saint Martin’s University in Lacey has hosted a festival featuring early jazz styles for many years.

The bloody banner of Olympia jazz is being waved by local artists with an average age span from about 45 to 80 years old, though there are a few younger up-and-comers. They came to Olympia at a point in their lives where they wanted to come off the road, get out of the New York rat race, and continue their craft in a laid-back and comfortable environment. They retain the artistic passion and intensity of the experience of their youth, still commanding awe and respect from audiences and other musicians. The search is now on for young, talented jazz locals who will carry on in future years. Some may be gestating in Olympia right now. Perhaps urban sprawl from Seattle will make its way that far south and increase the number of promising future artists. Whatever its future, for now jazz in Olympia is alive and well.

Additional Reading

The Advocate, “Jazz in Olympia: Blowin’ at Bert’s” by Carl Cook (Vol. 1, No. 15, January 7, 1986).

Earshot Jazz, Articles on Olympia jazz and artists by Paul de Barros, Allen Youngblood, Gary Bannister, and Bruce Kochism (February/March, 1986), “The Bert Wilson Story” by Joseph Murphy (March 1990) “Tenor Madness: The Inspired Music of Bert Wilson” by Peter Monaghan (March 1996).

Impact News Magazine, “Olympia Communal Artist Studio Alive and Doing Well” by Curt Hart (March 21, 1991).

Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle, by Paul de Barros (Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 1993).

The Olympian, “The Arts: Bringing It Back Home” by Dick Milligan (March 29, 1991), “Bert Wilson and Rebirth” by Brian Rainville (January 3, 1992), “City’s Sound All It’s Own” by Allison Linn (October 14, 1996).

Many thanks to Michael Moore, Michael Olson, and Bert Wilson for reading through drafts of this article and offering their corrections and additions.

David Joyner is a pianist, vocalist, and arranger living in Olympia with his wife, drummer and Washington native Maria Joyner and their two children. David is Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. From 1986 – 2000, he was professor in the prestigious Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas in Denton. The second edition of his history text, American Popular Music, was published by McGraw-Hill in June, 2002. More information on David and Maria can be found at their website, www.joyneronline.com.